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Next Hearthstone Expansion To Have More Than 100 Cards
With Hearthstone’s first add-on now behind Blizzard, the team is focusing on the future of the popular collectible card game. Curse of Naxxramas offered players a solo experience this summer, and the next expansion will bring new cards, strategies, and a common theme to the more than 20 million players.
Speaking with Polygon, Hearthstone production director Jason Chayes offered some early details about the future of the game. The team is looking at pacing to make sure that it keeps veteran players engaged while ensuring that new players can easily come aboard.
Collectible card games typically expand with new mechanics and themes, and if you use Magic: The Gathering as an example, these are spread across the five colors (an analog to Hearthstone’s leader classes). How that will play out in Blizzard’s take on the genre won’t be fully understood until we start seeing card spoilers, though.
There’s no time frame for the next major content update right now. For more on Hearthstone’s future, check out the interview at Polygon. You can also check out an interview from Gamescom with producer Yong Woo, during which we discussed the upcoming Observer mode.
[Source: Polygon]
Our Take
Expanding on a collectible game is tricky business. You don’t want to fall victim to power creep (making new items more powerful than the older ones as the prime motivator). New mechanics need to mesh with the old ones for new strategies. Mechanics need to be balanced across deck types to prevent a huge metagame shift.
In short, it’s best that Blizzard is taking its time with Hearthstone’s future. The game (and the team) isn’t big enough yet to produce on a Wizards of the Coast schedule, and despite its success, Hearthstone is still in the building phase. On-boarding new players and making them paying players is crucial for longevity.
I’m excited to see where Hearthstone is headed, especially if it adds interrupt/response cards that you can play on your opponent’s turn. That seems to be the biggest thing missing right now, because no one likes having to sit through a face roll with no defensive options.
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